There is no way to make commerce make sense in a way that isn’t very inconvenient to the players.
Unless the players aren't meant to actually be carrying around the gold :graeber:
howdy, it's me again
So I've been watching Star Trek lately, and I've read a lot of good things about Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment, and so I want to check out the quick start scenario for that game.
This will be a one-shot with pregenned characters, run off my Foundry RPG server, next weekend (26th-28th). If you're interested please drop a post here and/or DM me on Discord (SSJMarx#1619) and I'll put a channel together to talk about it. Also download the quick start guide linked above and skim the rules and characters - but please DON'T read Chapter 2: Away Mission: Signals since that's the scenario we'll be playing lmao.
You don't need to know anything about Star Trek to play - in fact it would probably be better if you come in without much knowledge of that universe's canon, since I only have a modest familiarity with it myself. All you have to know is that the Federation are Big Space Communists even if the writers of the TV shows are too liberal to admit it.
The scenario starts in media res, with the players as an Away Team investigating a missing Starfleet ship. Here's the introduction:
>CAPTAIN’S LOG
>STARDATE 48311.3
>We’ve received a message from Narendra Station that a runabout called the Susquehanna has gone missing in the Carina Nebula, deep within the Shackleton Expanse. The Susquehanna was investigating an unusual alien signal that originated from the nebula when all contact was lost. We have been ordered to enter the nebula, find the runabout, and determine the origin and cause of the alien signal. Starfleet has also advised that Romulan and Ferengi ships have been sighted in the region, so we should exercise caution since they may well have detected the alien signal as well.
Using a program like Tabletop Simulator or one of the alternatives.
I'm thinking 40k because the 10th edition is right around the corner and I'm interested in using that as a jumping on point, but I'm open to playing anything - Age of Sigmar, Battletech, Warmachine/Hordes all come to mind as alternatives, but I haven't been active in the hobby for a long time so I'm sure there are hundreds of newer games out there that are great too.
My big thing is I really want to play a narrative campaign of something, not just match up with randoms to play one-off battles where we barely talk. All of the games I mentioned have rules for that, with stuff like your units becoming veterans over time and your characters being consistent.
Since it's online there would be no expectations of buying anything (or participating in the irl hobby at all) to participate. We could coordinate over Discord and do things like have multiple games going at once, change games in between campaigns, spectate battles and chat, etc.
I've always taken the volcel stuff here to be more about not letting the forum attract creepers. On reddit any time there's a girl in a pic 80% of the comment section will just be :awooga: shit, which is alienating as fuck.
I love this concept. Zee spends a lot of time apologizing for it not being balanced, but balance isn't the chief concern of TTRPGs it's just a consideration and sacrificing a bit of balance on the altar of fun worldbuilding and intricate tactics is totally worth it as long as you don't go completely off the deep end.
aww yiss my favorite system of all time is called The Riddle of Steel
The two killer features were the combat system, which was designed by HEMA nerds to try and simulate actual duels with a helping of poker-esque "betting the odds" strategy thrown in, and the character advancement system which didn't turn around fighting monsters or getting treasure but roleplaying your character.
The first part causes combat to be really deadly and players to develop "styles" based on the moves they like the best. In one game that I was the GM, we had a player who rocked a mace and shield, and after killing one person with an upwards swing (that connected hard with their pelvis, obliterating it), decided that that was now his signature move and became known as "the groin smasher" after doing it a few more times. Enemies who knew his reputation would intentionally hold their shield low, exposing their head - but he was committed to the bit and would knock their shield out of the way in order to set up his preferred attack.
The second part really drives the story in interesting directions. Each player lays out five "spiritual attributes", which is basically things that your character would risk fighting for. This can be getting treasure or saving the innocent, but it can also be your family legacy, religious fervor, a love interest, revenge, etc. As the GM (TROS calls the GM a "Seneschal"), you take all of the plot threads that your players give you in the form of their characters' SAs, and weave them together into a character action-driven narrative - there are no miniatures or maps needed, so prep time is basically just character creation.
The result is character driven dark fantasy where the players move the story forward by making decisions and the Seneschal describes how the world reacts to those decisions. It's an utterly unique game that fosters a connection to exactly what your character is doing moment-to-moment that I haven't gotten from any other system; you don't "make an attack roll", you "swing your sword downwards-diagonally"; you don't "get a job clearing werewolves from the countryside", you "travel to the next town following a lead on the man who killed your father".
I used to be a power poster on the fan forum for this game, and I tragically watched the community go from fans of medieval treatises to "anti-woke" cryptofash nerds. The successor game to TROS was made by fans after the original publisher disappeared without a trace, and it might be an improved and cleaned up version of the game, but for some reason they filled it with sus imagery and then got mad at anyone who complained about it calling them SJWs and shit. Sucked to see.
Soon all artists will be expected to use AI generation as a part of their process. Art will be so devalued that it will be the only way to make enough volume of work to make a living off of it. Resist all you might, but capitalism beat the luddites and it beat the communes and it will beat freelance artists too.
:doomer:
Modern Superman is pretty explicit that Supes doesn't really have loyalty to the US Government, he just believes in "the American Way", ie liberal freedoms. There's one story in particular where Superman rescues a North Korean submarine from sinking, and Americans get pissed off at him, so he has to try and explain that he values all human lives and doesn't put stock in who the government's current enemies are. If I did a Superman in the USSR story, it would be like that - Superman is raised as a socialist and believes in the international project, but while he would defend the USSR from capitalist aggression he wouldn't let himself be used as a "weapon" by it.
Yeah the Red Son comics are such a great premise, but absolutely ruined by American anticommunist brain worms.
The guy basically saw what the cultural revolution and Deng were doing and wanted them to keep going, while the modern CPC mostly sees the cultural revolution as a mistake and Deng as having leaned too far right. Makes sense that he would move to America in the 90s.
